A QUICK-THINKING nurse is believed to have saved the young life of a teenager who was stabbed during an attempted robbery.

Mother of two Diana Shelley, 32, of Leyton Grange, was in her flat when her partner ran in and said the bleeding boy was lying on the ground outside.

Ms Shelley, an auxiliary nurse at Whipps Cross University Hospital, rushed outside to find the 14-year-old covered in blood yards from her front door.

She immediately applied pressure to the wound to stem the flow of blood, while her partner dialled 999.

She said: “There was blood on the stairs and when I looked at him his whole top was covered in it.

“I asked him what had happened and he said, ‘I’ve been stabbed, I’ve been stabbed’.

“I tried to keep him awake by talking to him, even though at times he looked like his eyes were reeling backwards.

“In my job I am quite used to the sight of blood so it didn’t distress me too much, but the one thing that was going through my mind was, this could have been my daughter.”

“He was bleeding so badly that when I eventually came away from him my hand right down to my elbow was covered in blood.”

“It is only just sinking in today what happened and I am so glad he is alive.”

The boy, who is believed to be from Hackney, is expected to make a full recovery.

The teenager was standing with a friend in Church Road, Leyton, at the junction with Villiers Close, at 8.45pm on Sunday (January 9) when he was attacked by a gang of young men who tried to rob him.

He managed to run into the Leyton Grange estate, where he realised he had been stabbed and collapsed yards from Ms Shelley’s front door.

Witnesses say there were up to 15 gang members and police believe they were of Somalian origin.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 020 3276 0955, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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